This Mobile Panic Button Could Save Your Life

One of the newest apps to hit the App Store, Witness could be a life-saving one. Billed as a panic button for the digital age, this new, free app allows users to subtly live-stream video, audio, and their current location to pre-set emergency contacts. Originally developed with individual safety in mind, there’s already talk of it being handy for alerting people to instances of police brutality or other public crimes as well.

In a world of increasingly complicated technology, this one is simple and direct: Should you find yourself in a dangerous situation (or want to help someone who is), just open the app and touch anywhere on your phone screen for one second to trigger its capabilities. Witness will then send text messages to your emergency contacts (who don’t need to have the app installed themselves) containing a link where they can view—in real-time—your video and audio, as well as a map tracking your location. And because many of us don’t see texts immediately, your loved ones will also receive calls from Witness with automated recordings alerting them to the text message. If you’re somewhere without cell reception, Witness will store all of the data on your device and upload it as soon as a connection returns. And if your phone gets lost or destroyed, the crucial info can be recovered from the Witness servers (anyone else think this would’ve come in handy in Taken?)

In its beta phase, Witness even defaulted to a black screen upon launch to make the recording less obvious, but had to do-away with that feature to pass Apple’s requirements and make it to the App Store. Developer Marinos Bernitsas is currently working on a compromise, but in the meantime it still seems worth it to download—and hope you don’t have to use—this extra layer of personal security.